Sixteenth+Caluri+4

__//**Amendment #16**//__ By: Michael, Samantha, and Ashley

//**The tax we love to hate; GOOD or BAD?**//

The Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: The Congress should have the power to place and collect taxes on incomes.

__**//Questions and Answers//**__

Q: Who wrote Amendment #16? A: Samuel P. Chase wrote Amendment #16.

Q: When was Amendment #16 ratified? A: Amendment #16 was ratified on July 12,1909. Q: When was Amendment #16 declared to be part of the Constitution? A: It was declared to be part of the Constitution on Feburary 25, 1913.

Q: Why was Amendment #16 created? A: It was created to make taxation fairer.

Q: What does Amendment # 16 do? A: It gives Congress the right to place tax on the income of both individuals and corporations.

Q: Who was the president at the time when the 16th amendment was passed? A: The president at that time was William Howard Taft.
 * //__Fun Facts__//**
 * There is evidence that this amendment might have never been approved properly as required by the Constitution and was frauduently ratified.
 * Before this amendment the biggest source of income had been from tariffs, fees charged on imported goods.
 * After the amendment was ratified, Congress established a new personal income tax with rates ranging from 1 to 7 percent on income in excess of $3,000 for a single individual.
 * Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment in 1909. It was ratified(confirmed) in 1913.
 * The first time Congress tried to get this amendment approved it was declared unconstitutional by the courts.


 * In 1942, Disney produced a short film, The New Spirit, which Donald Duck was in.
 * 32 million people saw this production which helped the government make a point.
 * During the movie Donald Duck said that paying your income tax is, "Not your duty, but your privilage."
 * Also, Irving Berlin, who was a songwriter, wrote the ditty, "I Paid My Income Tax Today."
 * Most Americans listened to this song and sang along.
 * Americans listed to the song and by 1939 they had filed about 4 million income-tax returns. By 1945 this number reached to 50 million by the Worls War II.
 * [|I Paid My Income Tax Today Lyrics]


 * //__Current Events: [[image:http://stanleybing.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/bag_of_money_bw.png width="79" height="102"]]__//**

Samantha 1. The tax we love to hate; Good or Bad? American or un-American? By: Sean McCollum In America, lawmakers rarely entertained the idea of a peacetime national income tax. It was not untill President Abraham Lincoln, that Congress began using income taxes to pay for the Civil War. Later after the tax expired, wealth was shifting from farmers to businessmen and other professionals. Then a question and a point was made: Should the rich be taxed more than the rest? Laboreres and small farmers were all saying yes. In 1893, Benton McMillin argued a case for an income tax rather than a sales tax. In 1894, Congress passed a new income tax saying that any money earned over $4,000 was taxed at 2%. Soon there were problems arising. So soon to override constitution issues, income-tax supporters made a push for a 16th Amendment to the Constitution: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on income." It was added in 1913. I think that the Congress did the right thing with the 16th Amendment.

Michael 2. Commentary on The Sixteenth Amendment By: American Journey Online In 1895, the Supreme Court declared the federal income-tax portion of an 1894 tariff law unconstitutional. The ruling in the case was based on Artcle 1, Section 9, of the Constitution, which says "No capititation (poll tax), or other direct tax will be laid unless in porportion to the census or enumeration here in before directed to be taken". The U.S. goverment still needed revenue though, so they ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913 giving Congress power to levy taxes on income from any source.

Michael's Opinion: I think that this article is very helpful, interesting and has a lot of good information about the 16th Amendment. It talks about how the law was first declared unconstitutional and then was passed anyway because the goverment needed money. That backs up the theory that the law was unconstitutional and was frauduently passed.

Ashley 3. Effort to Make Raising Taxes Harder Fails By: Adam Clymer Rejecting the symbolism of an anti-tax vote on the day Americans file their tax returns, the House of Representatives tonight defeated a proposed constitutional amendment to require two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress before Federal taxes could be raised. The vote was 243 in favor to 177, 37 short of the two-thirds required to propose amendments to the Constitution. Two hundred and nineteen Republicans and 24 Democrats voted for the amendment, while 16 Republicans joined 160 Democrats and 1 independent in opposition.

//__**Video links**__//: [|Amendment 16 Video] [|Disneys The New Spirit] __//**Websites Used:**//__ [|http://law.jrank.org] [|http://find.galegroup.com] [|http://www.geocities.com]